Posted: 1/4/05
Photos tell George Stuberís story
 This 88 millimeter all-purpose German gun did a lot of damage against the 20th Tank Battalion. In the background were the largest SS barracks in Germany. Photos by George Stuber |
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
The photos are one-of-a-kind, and priceless in a sense, although George Stuber doesnít treat them that way.
They rest in two ring-binder notebooks and in a wooden army box in his house five miles south of Brownsville.
Most are 8x10-inch, black and white scenes from World War II. The photos are 60-some years old now, yet they look almost new, which is a compliment to the man who took and developed them, George Stuber.
Stuber, 82, appears to be in almost as good a condition as his photographs. He had the fascinating job of ìdivision photographerî in Europe in World War II.
The photos capture the war in its many faces. There are photos from training camps in Kansas and Kentucky, before men were shipped overseas. These men look happy, their clothes and equipment new and clean as they do their training or play baseball.
There are shots of Army big shots, generals and corporals, shaking hands, saluting.
There are gritty images from the war itself. Bodies on a field, blown up bridges, tanks firing.
There are scenes taken the day after the concentration camp Dachau was liberated that are not very easy to look at.
And there are shots after the war ended, beautiful scenes with beautiful people in Austria, which convey a sense of peace. Looking at them, you wonder whether the awful war had even taken place so nearby.
The photos are excellent on their own, but when you consider that many of them were developed in a portable darkroom under stressful conditions, with even basics like running water at a premium, they are almost astounding.
Stuber doesnít seem to view them that way. He recounts their taking with a straight-forward account, and a few opinions about war photography and coverage sprinkled in.
He didnít think he would even get into the Army at first. Like many men of his generation, he volunteered for service after Pearl Harbor was bombed. But the Army didnít want him by virtue of deafness in his right ear.
But that changed, and the Army drafted him in 1942 in the ìlimited service category.î Army officials liked Stuberís background in photography, a skill he learned as a photo finisher in his hometown of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
He was assigned to cavalry school in Fort Riley, Kansas, as a photographer. ìMy past caught up with me,î is how George put it during our visit on December 21 in his studio.
He worked a night shift there, and discovered that he could do the eight hours of work in one or two hours. He used that time to learn to draw better, and became an accomplished cartoonist. He has many original cartoons that show Army life.
After that he went to Camp Campbell, Kentucky, where he was assigned to the 20th Armored Division as division photographer. He worked with reporters and public relations people. ìThey would do the talking and Iíd take the pictures,î he said.
A tiny darkroom
Stuber went overseas at the end of 1944, with the assignment to take photos for the Army, including counter intelligence and aerial photography. He worked out of a tiny portable darkroom that was pulled by a halftrack. It had just enough room for developing and enlarging photos. His main camera was a 4x5 Speed Graphic and flash, using 400 speed black-and-white film.
The darkroom had a generator. Sometimes Stuberís enlarger light would grow dim, because other soldiers were tapping into the electricity from the generator.
Speed in developing and printing was important, and Stuber speaks with pride in his voice of being able to develop two sets of eight 8x10 photos in 20 minutes. Often he would work with wet negatives.
ìMy only problem was getting water to develop pictures,î he said. Things got easier when he finally was stationed in a German barracks in Chemsee, near Cheiming, Germany, because there was running water there. He would also scrounge photographic paper and supplies from German towns that he passed through.
The 20th Armored Division was in the Battle of the Rhine and in other action in southern Germany. He was on hand the day after Dachau was liberated. Those kinds of photos bothered him at the time. ìI didnít carry it on,î he said.
Stuber was able to take pictures of beautiful Austrian landscapes and magnificent buildings in Salzburg after the war. He stood on a balcony where Hitler had stood, and sat in Herman Goeringís bedroom.
One castle had an attic the size of a basketball court, with many sawhorses equipped with saddles and decorations. ìTheoretically Mad King Ludwig played chess with the units that were up there,î Stuber said.
He visited Hitlerís home called The Eagles Nest, and snapped photos of USO stars like Ingrid Bergman and Jack Benny.
Stuber said he got used to taking pictures of death. He believes that some photos from war should not be made public. If photographers or news people had been at the Seigfried Line in World War II, the war would have ended early, Stuber believes, ìWe would be speaking German or Japanese now.î
Stuber was discharged in 1946. He returned to La Crosse and opened a photo shop. Two women came in looking for work. He hired both of them. ìAnd the good looking one turned out to be my wife,î he said.
That was Pat Knapp from La Crescent. After two weeks on the job, she said she was going to leave to go back to cosmetology school. ìI said, ëOnce you leave, can I have a date?íî They were married in 1947.
Stuber studied fine art and portraiture in Chicago, then worked for an ad agency there before returning to La Crosse. He was self employed for a time, then went to work for Pyroil Company.
He and Pat moved to the August Brown farm in the Twin Coves area south of Brownsville in 1980.
Stuber noted that his job was different than that of a war photographer or journalist. His photos were for someone else, and people told him what to do, he said.
He does not approve of things like Dan Rather telling about the lives of soldiers who are dying in the Iraq war. ìWhat that is is plucking on the heartstrings of the people,î he said.
Pat and George have one son, Peter, who lives next door to them. They have one grandchild, and one great-grandchild.
Three close calls for George
George Stuber had three very close brushes with death during his World War II service. He describes them here:
In a minefield
As we were going through past of the Siegfreid Line, our captain asked me to walk over a field near an emplacement to photograph two dead German soldiers. When I took their pictures, I noticed what looked like many bullet holes in their uniforms. I realized they had landed into one of their own minefields. Standing still, I looked around and saw a sign for ìGerman Mine Field.î Within six feet of me I could see the three prongs of an S-mine. Carefully taking my hunting knife that my mother had sent me, I prodded the ground ahead of me using my Engineering Mine technique to get back to the road. It took me five minutes to walk out to get those pictures, one hour to get back.
Lucky with snipers
Going through Frankfurt, Germany, one of our Brockway Truck drivers backed into a distillery, knocked out a brick wall with the crane, disconnected a 5,000-gallon tank of brandy, hoisted it on the truck and brought it to our wooded area. One officer thought it was wine and most of the fellows enjoyed it. But it was brandy. My tent mate had a good time and when I got him into the front of our tent, he snuck out the back. While I was getting him back, ìBedcheck Charlieî [machine gun fire from German planes] had shot up our tent and foxhole. So there must be some good in drinking.
The Battle of Munich
My friends from Fort Riley were in the Cavalry. They drove into Munich and the people welcomed them. Not so the 20th Tank Battalion. They were coming across a prairie towards the West point of the German SS troops. Large buildings with a brick wall about 6-8 feet tall. The Germans blew holes in the wall and using their famous 88s, shot and disabled quite a few of our tanks. They also had trenches and tunnels to protect their positions. We did win, but it was scary to the troops. Some tanks were hit at such a close range that the shells went in and out before exploding.
One day later, my job was to go through the area and take pictures. Going into an open tunnel between trenches, I crept inside to get a better photo. As I did the sun came out and sunlight shone through an opening. I noticed a silver glint ñ it was a trip wire booby trap. If I had backed into it to get a better shot, I wouldnít be writing this.
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